A passionate cook, Nirmala Pandarinathan loved experimenting with an array of cuisines and would deftly put together a pot-pourri of simple and ingenious dishes for the family, remembers her daughter and model-turned-photographer Prasanna Pandarinathan.  Interspersed with images of long-forgotten memories and family anecdotes, Ammi (Rupa Publications) is a warm and absorbing introduction to the life of Nirmala. The cookbook  contains 108 recipes—most being her and her father’s favourites and some other family specials. From banana blossom vadas to kari keema kembing and fish puttu with moringa leaves, the recipes represent the diversity and depth of South Indian food, Southeast Asian cuisines, and the bakes and grills from the West that were everyday meals in her mother’s kitchen. 

Born into a Tamilian business family, Nirmala’s tryst with food began in colonial Singapore where she was raised, and exposed to a mix of Indian, Malaysian, Chinese, Indonesian and European cultures. Married at 19, she moved to London with her husband and joined the famous Cordon Bleu Cooking. “She began learning because she had time on hand. It was here that my mother’s love affair with traditional French cuisine and its techniques began. She even made regular calls to her family cooks in Singapore to pick up the little secrets of spicy Chettinad, Singaporean, Malay delicacies,” says Pandarinathan.